Home > Press > Making a better wound dressing -- with fish skin
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| A protein found in fish skin could promote wound healing.  Credit: Ammit/iStock/Thinkstock  | 
Abstract:
With a low price tag and mild flavor, tilapia has become a staple dinnertime fish for many Americans. Now it could have another use: helping to heal our wounds. In the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, scientists have shown that a protein found in this fish can promote skin repair in rats without an immune reaction, suggesting possible future use for human patients.
Jiao Sun, Xiumei Mo and colleagues explain that applying collagen -- a major structural protein in animals -- to wounds can help encourage skin to heal faster. But when the protein dressing comes from mammals such as cows and pigs, it has the potential to transmit conditions such as foot-and-mouth disease. Searching for an alternative source of collagen, scientists recently turned to the ocean. Sun's team wanted to test fish collagen's potential as a more benign wound treatment.
The researchers developed nanofibers from tilapia collagen and used them to cover skin wounds on rats. The rats with the nanofiber dressing healed faster than those without it. In addition, lab tests on cells suggested that the fish collagen was not likely to cause an immune reaction. The researchers conclude that it could be a good candidate to develop for clinical use.
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The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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About American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
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Contacts:
Michael Bernstein
202-872-6042
Jiao Sun, Ph.D. 
Shanghai Biomaterials Research & Testing Center 
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology 
Ninth People's Hospital 
Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine 
Shanghai 200023 
China 
Phone: +86-021-63034903 
or
Xiumei Mo, Ph.D. 
College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology 
Donghua University 
Shanghai 201620 
China 
Phone: +86-021-67792653 
 
Copyright © American Chemical Society
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